Court allows Christian girl to go with father

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday allowed a teenage Christian girl to go with her father after she stated that a Muslim man purchased her for forced conversion and marriage. Javed Masih, hailing from Faisalabad, had filed a habeas corpus petition for the recovery of his 14-year-old daughter from the custody of one Muhammad Zafar.

Petitioner's counsel Abdul Rasheed informed the court that some family members of the petitioner had kidnapped the girl and later sold to Zafar. He said Zafar forcibly converted the girl to Islam and married her under coercion.

Following the court's direction, the local police of Faisalabad recovered the girl from the illegal detention and produced her before the court. A police official, however, told the court that Zafar and his other accomplices had escaped before the raid. Police also presented a certificate of a local seminary which showed that the girl embraced Islam with her 'free' will and had been named Ayesha.

Responding to the court, the girl maintained that she was abducted and later sold to Zafar who forced her to embrace Islam before contracting the marriage. She said she wanted to go with her family. Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh recorded the statement of the girl and sent her with her father.